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Thoughts on the New iPhone

Posted by Nick O'Neill on June 12th, 2008 10:13 AM

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, there is a good chance that you’ve heard about Apple’s new 3G iPhone which is set to transform the mobile industry. The new phone comes with GPS, runs on the faster 3G network, has improved battery-life and only costs $199 for the 8 GB model. Unfortunately for me I listened through the entire Apple Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on Monday just to get to the end where Steve Jobs announced the new device.

While there were false rumors about video chat and dual cameras on the phone, the phone is still expected to dominate the cell phone market. Piper Jaffray expects Apple to sell a whopping 45 million iPhones next year. It’s not just the iPhone that will positively effect Apple’s bottom line though. Based on numbers that Dan Frommer completed, Apple could generate upwards of a quarter billion dollars in operating income from iPhone application sales.

While I am currently a Blackberry user I am most definitely going to purchase one of the new iPhones for the purpose of testing out the new applications being built on the platform. With GPS integrated applications, the phone will transform location based services and in my own opinion it also will transform the social web. As I’ve said on numerous occasions, the phone is inherently a social device whereas a computer is not.

Will you be purchasing the new iPhone? Do you think it’s going to help transform the social web?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 10:13 am and is filed under Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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    I am definitely going to buy the new iPhone. Timing will depend on a number of things such as, will the iPhone 3G be unlockable? If yes, chances are I will wait some time and buy the iPhone as I bought my current one, via the US (not yet in Belgium). If not, then I will have to wait for the iPhone to officially appear in Belgium, and we don't know yet when that is going to be.

    Some thoughts on the price though: it's 199 USD, but that comes with a 2 year plan, and not a cheap one I understand. So adoption and selling 45 million iPhones will not be as easy as anyone thinks imho. I would love it off course, as I believe the social apps and GPS location based services could really change the way people interact with each other.

    Interesting times ahead! ;-)
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    Words can't express how excited I was to hear about a more affordable iPhone. My dreams of owning the coveted iPhone raced through my mind, and the reality of those dreams was tangible. And then I realized it was going to cost a lot more than the easy-to-swallow-price of $199. I'm a college student. I'm not exactly broke, but I do pay for most expenses myself, and that includes my cell phone. Adding the iPhone data package would increase my cell phone bill by at least $40 a month...for the next 2 years. That ends up being an additional $960, bringing the subtotal for iPhone ownership to $1160. That $199 iPhone suddenly doesn't seem so cheap anymore, and my nearly fulfilled fantasy of iPhone ownership fades into oblivion.

    Will the iPhone revolutionize the social web? Of course, for the affluent individuals that can afford to own one. The cost of owning these devices must become more affordable for the middle class before dramatic changes occur. If web 2.0 is supposed to democratize digital technology, we are still a good deal away from that achieving that goal, although every advance brings us one step closer. The digital divide, though its meaning has changed over the last 10 years, still exists: the iPhone haves and the iPhone have-nots. Until the day I join the ranks of the haves, I will continue to twitter from my laptop and lament my dependency on a computer.

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